Francesco Castellano
Verified Expert in Finance
Management Consulting Expert
Monza, Province of Monza and Brianza, Italy
Toptal member since January 4, 2017
Francesco brings 20 years of experience across finance, consulting, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Over the years, he has contributed to numerous impactful projects as a consultant at Bain, launched Uber’s operations in Italy, and worked in finance at General Electric. Recently, he founded Tondo, a hub of organizations dedicated to promoting circular approaches and supporting the transition to a circular future. Francesco is deeply passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
- Business Strategy
- Circular Economy
- Financial Modeling
- Management Consulting
- Market Research
- Market Sizing
- Startups
- Venture Funding
Work Experience
Founder | CEO
Tondo Lab
- Assisted a major Asian energy company in creating their venture-building factory focusing on sustainability by crafting their partnership model and investment strategy.
- Assessed the US and Europe's most relevant sustainable and circular tech trends for a major service real estate company to identify their potential market value.
- Coordinated the market and technical due diligence in a last-generation wastewater treatment plant producing bioplastics, reviewing and redeveloping the financial plan.
- Developed the financial plan for a new automotive designer player focusing on electric cars, including profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet for five entities.
- Developed the pricing strategy for a pioneering drone company entering the European market, along with a comprehensive analysis of key competitors, market potential by country, and the overall business plan.
- Assessed a mobility player in the Middle East to identify and design a new operating model's main organizational and technological elements.
- Mentored various startups as part of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Booster 2.0 program, with a focus on refining their business models, sales processes, and financial plans.
- Developed the financial plan for a startup, working as a trading platform in the fish industry supporting waste reduction, which collected €20 million in Series A.
- Assisted a major multi-utility in scouting circular and sustainable startups and launched an innovation call related to circular solutions in collaboration with a multi-utility, an IT company, and a food company.
- Supported a private equity firm in commercial due diligence, analyzing the Italian market's potential for an educational institute's expansion plan.
Founder | President
Tondo
- Launched a platform, supported by a European grant, to drive local development of the circular economy by analyzing local circularity and promoting circular projects.
- Developed different tools to measure the level of circularity at the product, company, and city levels, using the most relevant methodologies and standards.
- Conducted market research on startups implementing circular business models in the Italian market.
- Offered classes and workshops on circular economy and innovation to corporations and educational institutes.
- Designed and managed different hackathons and contests on circular economy and sustainability involving corporations and universities.
- Designed and coordinated eight significant innovation and circular economy events involving major companies, startups, and research institutes in Milan, Naples, Genoa, and Taranto.
- Coordinated the activities on two studies evaluating the sustainability and circularity level of northern Italy's fashion and textile industry.
- Managed a study on the material flow analysis (MFA) at the city level for a town in the south of Italy to propose the most relevant projects to increase the circularity level.
- Designed and coordinated a class on Circular Economy at the Catholic University.
Strategy, Finance, and Innovation Expert
Independent Work
- Developed the strategic plan for a large Singaporean educational institute entering the European market, including market analysis, competitive landscape, company position, and business plan.
- Created a go-to-market strategy for a North American carpooling platform entering a new country, assessed main marketing channels, approach per channel, segments, and main messages.
- Set up the operations–including defining the operational processes, KPIs, and the action plan–and the go-to-market strategy for a personal services platform, launching operations in the Italian market.
- Supported the implementation of strategic partnerships, including company presentation, identification of possible targets, and main synergies for an e-grocery platform scaling-up operations in Italy.
- Analyzed the market and the competitive landscape for an IT outsourcing company operating in the US and Africa, backed by Google Ventures.
- Evaluated a potential target in the Italian market for a large global private equity firm.
- Identified the most disrupting innovations that could impact a major beauty player.
- Implemented, as a project manager, the launch in Italy of a new product for an international mobility player.
- Built the financial model and the investor decks to support the financing from a major bank and the fundraising from investors for a robotics startup.
- Served as the temporary business development director for an international professional service firm, managing the sales plan definition and reorganizing sales activities.
Managing Director
Home Professional Services Marketplace
- Fleshed out the business development strategy, including significant partnerships to develop, main categories to focus on, and new cities to launch, along with the financial plan.
- Updated, periodically, investors and shareholders on main KPIs, such as cost per user acquisition, cost per request, and revenue growth and strategy implementation.
- Defined the marketing strategy, including marketing channels and budget allocated per channel, and monitored acquisition performance per channel.
- Defined operational KPIs, operating processes like acquisition and training, and principal focus areas.
- Fundraised the initial seed capital from angel investors and implemented two strategic partnerships with main industry leaders.
Supply Growth and Operations Manager
Uber Technologies
- Launched Uber in a new city, Turin, in the Italian market, achieving 15 weeks of continuous double-digit growth, and awarded as one of Uber's fastest-growing cities in Europe.
- Led the supply growth, including marketing and acquisition process for Italy, coordinating efforts for all five cities: Milan, Rome, Turin, Genoa, and Padua.
- Identified channels for driver acquisition like Google AdWords, Facebook, job boards, and radio; defined the channel strategy and monitored the acquisition performance.
- Built up the metrics to monitor the onboarding process for driver acquisition; created the procedures for each process step, and improved the training material.
- Led the business development for Italy, assessing potential new products (e.g., UberEATS) to launch in the Italian market.
- Managed the operations and monitored the overall supply performance for Turin; identified and negotiated main strategic partnerships to support business development.
Associate | Senior Associate | Consultant
Bain & Company
- Defined the business plan for an international manufacturing player operating in the automotive industry.
- Identified addressable markets, built a business model, and created a growth strategy for a mid-sized energy service player.
- Wrote the business plan to help an infrastructure and public services player raise financing from a major bank.
- Optimized the cost structure and working capital for two major energy players.
- Developed more than five strategic, business, and commercial due diligence plans for several retail, industrial, and energy players.
- Implemented post-merger integration processes for two major energy players as the project manager.
- Built a credit risk model and dashboard for a major multinational energy player.
Associate Financial Analyst
General Electric
- Identified key areas for sales linearity improvement (e.g., planning, sourcing quality, and manufacturing processes).
- Defined the detailed quarterly sales plans for manufacturing and sourcing and developed a root cause analysis for variances.
- Developed a monthly dashboard for the manufacturing metrics (e.g., cost per material input and labor cost per hour).
- Created a detailed forecast on material input during a Six Sigma project, which improved the budgeting process.
- Supported the global supply chain management with a specific financial analysis during the quarterly FP&A update.
Financial Analyst
Lazuli Solutions
- Developed financial models to evaluate investment projects in the energy sector for leading investment banks in London.
- Created a financial model for a major offshore wind farm in the UK.
- Built a financial model for a large solar plant in Africa.
- Underwent training in financial modeling development using the F1F9 methodology in New Delhi.
Education
Executive Course in Circular Economy and Sustainability
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Online
Executive Course in Disruptive Strategy
Harvard Business School - Online
Coursework Toward a PhD in Business Management
University of Bologna - Bologna, Italy
Master's Degree in Finance
24ORE Business School - Milan, Italy
Bachelor's/Master's Combined Degree in Business Administration
University of Naples Federico II - Naples, Italy
Skills
Finance
Cost Efficiency, Total Addressable Market (TAM), Venture Funding, Angel/Seed Funding, Private Equity, Fundraising, Financial Modeling, Market Research, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Budgeting, Due Diligence, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Forecasting, Pricing, Revenue & Expense Projections, Market Opportunity Analysis, Operational Finance, Corporate Finance, Accounting
Output Software
Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel
Industry Expertise
Open Innovation, Energy, Technology, Education Technology (Edtech), Retail & Wholesale, Food & Beverage, Venture Capital
Geographic Expertise
Italy, Europe, Middle East
Other
Business Strategy, Circular Economy, Business Planning, Market Research & Analysis, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Training & Training Content Development, Business Models, Consulting, Post-merger Integration, Pitch Decks, Growth Strategy, Strategy Planning, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Strategy, Business Development, Training, Startups, Personal Services, Scenario Analysis, Investor Presentations, Communication, Financial Consultation, Education, Management, Market Sizing, Business Consulting, Small Business Consultants, Management Consulting, Energy Sector Expert, Growth Strategy Consultants, Financial Analysis, Fundraising Strategy, Leadership Strategy, Project Leadership, Competitive Analysis, Go-to-market Strategy, Market Fit, Circular Transition, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), Innovation Management, Innovation, eCommerce, Robotics, Manufacturing, Strategic Planning & Execution, Performance Improvement, Change Management, Project Management Operations, Operations Management, Growth, Strategic Planning, Project Management, Investor Relations, Strategic Partnerships, Go-to-market Plans, Internet of Things (IoT), Entrepreneurship, Energy Utilities, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Finance, Sustainable Development, Sustainability Reports, Organization, Economics, Planning, Marketing, Sustainability Strategy
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